


I Won't Leave You

by Musetotheworld



Series: Supercat Week 3 [7]
Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, F/F, Major character death - Freeform, Soulmate-Identifying Timers, Supercat Week, With A Twist
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-24
Updated: 2017-04-24
Packaged: 2018-10-23 06:19:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10713924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Musetotheworld/pseuds/Musetotheworld
Summary: When Cat is thirteen years old, her timer freezes. It's never happened to anyone before, and she has no idea what it could mean. When she's twenty-five, it starts back up again. But it turns out that isn't the last of the troubles her timer will bring.





	I Won't Leave You

**Author's Note:**

> Mind the angst, people. It's a little bittersweet, but definitely painful.

Cat gets thirteen years of being normal before her world changes. Her timer ticks down just like any other, marking the days until she meets her soulmate. She’ll be twenty-five, a good age for a first meeting. She’ll be old enough to be on her own and somewhat settled, but not so old that she misses too many years at her soulmate’s side. Because of course she’s going to end up with her soulmate, not divorced like her parents. She refuses to accept any other possibility.

When she’s thirteen, her timer stops. It doesn’t go to zero the way it would if her soulmate died, it just stops. She’s never heard of it happening to anyone else before, and being different is never seen as a good thing in her family. So she hides the truth from them, pretending her timer still works. It helps that no one looks too closely at another person’s timer, and the positioning on the inside of her forearm makes it easy to keep hidden from casual glances. The only person she was worried about noticing at all was her mother, but that would have taken the woman showing an interest in her for once.

When she’s twenty five, on the very day she should have met her soulmate, her timer starts ticking down once more. Twelve years to go, and Cat isn’t quite sure how she feels about that. She’d gotten used to the unchanging numbers on her skin, begun to think they would never shift again. It’s why she’d had Carter, her beautiful and amazing little boy. She wanted to give her heart to someone, and in a world where so many found their soulmates, the choices she had were limited. And she would not settle for someone who wasn’t worthy of her, or saw her as an alternative. She no longer quite believed the fairytale love story could ever apply to her, but she couldn’t quite let it go.

And really, her timer counting down once more did save her as she became more and more well known. Even with the pains she often took to keep it hidden from clear view, the more pictures there were of her the more likely it would be that someone would notice the unchanging numbers. And while she wanted attention, could even accept speculation about her life, she didn’t want to listen to countless idiots wonder what a frozen timer could mean.

She’d still never found anything like it in all her research. Everything about the timers was fairly well understood, save where they came from and how the universe could know. Other than those two questions that no one really thought could ever be answered, humanity had a good idea of what the marks were about.

They counted down until you met your soulmate, and unless you made very sudden and extreme decisions the countdown never shifted. However the universe tracked the future and the winding paths of fate, humanity was mostly dancing to its tune. But it’s what happened when you met your soulmate that was of far greater interest to most.

The moment you met your soulmate, the moment your timer hit zero, it reset. Instead of counting down the time until you met, it counted down the days of your soulmate’s life, telling you how much longer they would live. Those numbers could change wildly, and often did, but they were also interesting in another way.

You could give your time to your soulmate, through whatever bond you had. It was the greatest mystery, but also one of the greatest gifts. Of course, there were those who viewed it as wrong, but it had been part of human society for so long that no one thought much of it anymore. For most soulmates it meant tracking time to die on the same day, happily into old age. For others, when something would go wrong for one soulmate with no hope of rescue, they would send their remaining time to their partner, giving them as much time as they could, especially if they had children. There were many options, some more controversial than others, but for most of the world it meant sharing every possible moment of your life with each other.

So no one would know what her numbers stopping could mean. It hadn’t happened before, and was wholly outside the realm of human knowledge. And Cat had very little interest in becoming a case study. She’d decided long ago that she’d rather live wondering what it meant that subject herself to that, even if her inquisitive mind longed for answers.

When her timer starts counting down again, Cat couldn’t help feeling a flash of annoyance even as she also feels relieved. She’d thought she knew where her life was heading, had made her own roadmap without the interference of the timer on her arm. She’d had a child because she wanted one, she’d started building a media company because she wanted to, everything she’d done was her decision. And now the universe was butting in again, taking back control over at least one area of her life. And she did not appreciate that at all.

So she puts the timer out of her mind beyond the occasional reminder, the occasional flash of relief that while trashier media outlets are still wondering why she’ll meet her soulmate so late they aren’t wondering why her timer isn’t moving. Beyond that she doesn’t bother to track the date, or pay attention to more than a general timeframe. If this is going to happen so be it, that doesn’t mean she has to let her life revolve around it.

Cat has completely forgotten that it’s even the same month her timer is supposed to hit zero when she starts scheduling interviews for an assistant, too caught up in the bustle as CatCo really begins to take off. She’s been making a profit for a few years now, but lately things have really been picking up. She’s being pulled in a dozen different directions every hour of the day and it’s started to cut into her time with Carter, so she’s decided to hire someone to handle the worst of the demands. Ideally she’ll find someone capable enough to eventually lessen the load considerably, but for now having someone competent enough to get her coffee and lunch to make sure she actually eats will be a start.

The girl in front of her during her first interview is nervous, visibly shaking as she sits across from Cat with a look of awe on her face. And Cat is used to having fans, but the look on this girl’s face is a step beyond that. It’s mildly unnerving, but Cat needs an assistant.

“This is a demanding job, if you can’t manage to make it through even five minutes of an interview without shaking like a leaf you won’t last long enough to bother with,” Cat says dismissively, hoping to see some kind of backbone from the girl. She doesn’t seem that bad, other than the obvious nerves, and her resume is impressive enough for what Cat’s looking for. With some work she could probably manage somewhere around halfway decent.

“I’m sorry, Miss Grant,” the girl says, and Cat gives her a few points for not stuttering or calling her ma’am. “But I don’t think I should take this position after all.”

“You make it all the way to an interview with Cat Grant and then decide you don’t want the job before I can ask a single question? Why the hell would you waste my time like this? Yours might not be very valuable, but I assure you I have a dozen other things I could be doing right now,” Cat says with a glare, wondering just what her game is.

“Oh no, I want the job,” the girl says quickly, and Cat arches her brow to get her to come to the point. “But I don’t think it would be entirely appropriate.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Cat asks, glancing down at the resume to remind herself of the girl’s name. “Do you or do you not want to continue this interview, Keira?”

Kara shifts uncomfortably for a second, and somehow Cat knows she’s weighing her options on what to say next. It’s intriguing and impressive, the way she didn’t fold at the first glare or sharp word. From her initial demeanor Cat would have expected her to give in almost instantly, not have the courage to sit and make a CEO wait for an answer.

“I do, but I can’t, Miss Grant,” Kara says eventually, rising to her feet and giving Cat a firm look that should seem at odds with the impression she’s been giving so far and yet isn’t at all. “I didn’t know it would be you, but it is, so even if the interview went well I would have to turn down the job opportunity. I’m sorry for wasting your time.”

And with that she turns to leave, but Cat isn’t about to let her get away with that. There’s something she’s missing here, something Kara knows that she doesn’t. And that’s just unacceptable. She won’t end what was supposed to be a job interview with more unanswered questions than she began it with.

“Keira, sit,” she commands, impressed once more when she seeks Kara think about it rather than obey instantly. “If you won’t continue the interview, will you at least tell me why?” she asks when Kara has once more taken her seat.

“You really don’t know?” Kara asks, sounding hurt. And Cat cannot for the life of her think of why that should be the case. So she mutely shakes her head, gesturing for Kara to continue. “I thought it would be someone I bumped into here, I never thought it would be you,” Kara says as she pushes up the half sleeve of her cardigan far enough to expose her timer, frozen at zero the way it will be until they leave each other’s presence for the first time.

Looking down at her own arm Cat sees the same zeroes staring up at her, and she can’t help freezing as her mind races to take in this new information. She has the answer to one of her questions, but yet again Kara has left her with even more. Why had her timer stopped for what would have been roughly the first twelve years of Kara’s life? What does she do now? What does she want from Kara, from the bond between them?

Her old desires for happiness with her bonded are still there, no matter how deeply years of pragmatism have buried them. And now that she’s actually facing her soulmate, those dreams have even more power over her. But she’s had years to master and temper her desires, and Cat will not jump into this headfirst, not without being certain there will be something or someone to catch her.

“I had another ten minutes blocked for your interview,” Cat says carefully, deciding her course of action even as she speaks. “I lost track of the day and didn’t plan for this, and I can’t cancel my day, but we can take this ten minutes to talk, if you’d like.” They can’t cover much in ten minutes, but it should be long enough to let Cat know whether it’s worth pursuing something more with Kara. 

If they can’t make it through ten minutes, there’s no way they can make it longer. And if Kara is already put off by her interview manner then they won’t make it through those ten minutes. Better to find that out now, than spend however long trying to make something work that has no chance.

“I’d like that,” Kara says, ducking her head with a blush, and Cat feels herself soften towards this girl just the slightest bit. As an assistant the hesitancy might have gotten annoying, might have been something Cat tried to teach out of her in favor of a more decisive temperament. But that’s for an assistant, someone Cat would want ready and able to help make business decisions about the fate of her company. On her soulmate, someone she might genuinely interested in starting a relationship with, it’s another matter entirely. “And maybe, if these ten minutes go well, we could go out to dinner?”

“I can’t tonight,” Cat says, very real regret slipping into her tone. Just the fact that Kara had asked first had nearly won her over, but Carter’s nanny can’t stay late on Mondays and she’s still not comfortable leaving him alone in the evenings, no matter how old he’s getting. “My son’s nanny has standing plans for Monday nights, it’s the one night of the week I can’t stay past six.” She tries to be home as early as possible every other night as well, but she’d learned early on that it wouldn’t always be possible. That’s part of the reason she’s looking for an assistant.

“Oh, of course,” Kara says instantly, not seeming bothered by the news that her soulmate has a child. “Your evenings with him absolutely come first. No child should feel that their parents aren’t there for them.” The pain in Kara’s voice is well hidden, but Cat has been a journalist too long to miss it. 

“He has a science camp this weekend that he’ll be leaving for Friday, if that night would work for you,” Cat offers instead, not quite ready to give in to the very momentary urge to invite Kara over tonight. She won’t do that to Carter for one, and it would be moving entirely too fast besides. Universe or no, soulmate or no, she isn’t rushing into anything. She’s old enough to know better by now.

“I’d like that,” Kara says with another smile, one Cat can’t help returning. She can be cautious, but she’s still talking to her soulmate here. And Kara’s smiles are nearly impossible to resist.

***

She’s so used to not checking her timer that Cat completely forgets it will have reset once Kara leaves. It’s another two days before she happens to glance at it in fact, and when she does it takes her nearly five minutes to stop staring. She’d been expecting a good, strong number between sixty and seventy-five years, a respectable lifespan. Kara seems healthy enough, there hadn’t been any warning signs that she was sick, and so Cat had assumed she’d have a good number of years left to her.

She hadn’t expected to see her timer read 4,523 years, 8 months, 6 days, and 32 minutes. It was an overwhelming amount of time that she couldn’t wrap her mind around, no matter how hard she tried. And she couldn’t think of a single reason why her arm should now read so many years. Nothing on Earth could have prepared her for this.

Whatever the reasoning, Kara will have a lot of explaining to do once Friday comes.

***

Cat catches a glimpse of Kara’s forearm as she takes her seat, and is relieved to see a perfectly respectable 54 sitting there. She might not relish the thought of getting older and inevitably losing her edge, but she accepts that it’s going to happen. Making it to her nineties is nothing to scoff at.

Cat is wearing a sweater of course, not wanting to take any chances of someone seeing the ridiculously large number currently taking up residence on her own arm. After years of hiding a frozen soulmark, it seems a strange irony that now she’s met her soulmate she’s right back to hiding it. At least this time there is at least a possibility of her questions being answered, unlike before.

“This restaurant seems amazing,” Kara says as she scans the menu, a hint of nerves clinging to her as she does. She’s probably not used to anything quite this fancy or expensive, but Cat had been so thrown by the numbers on her arm that she’d forgotten to take that into consideration when placing their reservation. And it’s too late now, Cat Grant cannot simply abandon a meal halfway through without attracting attention.

“It’s one of my favorites,” Cat admits, having already decided which dish she’ll be getting tonight. “Their lamb is the best I’ve had in the city.” Kara nods as she scans another page, and Cat wants to sigh. She’s made the girl nervous by choosing this restaurant, which hadn’t been her intention at all. Kara isn’t someone who will be impressed by money being thrown around, Cat can already tell that about her. And questions aside, Cat does want to impress her. She hasn’t been able to stop thinking about that since Kara had left the interview.

“Is their chicken any good?” Kara asks a moment later, sounding hesitant as she keeps her gaze focused down to avoid eye contact, and Cat fights back a sigh. She’s going to have to apologize, one of her least favorite things to do.

“It is,” she says, reaching out to cover one of Kara’s hands with her own, finally getting her to look up with a vaguely shocked look at the physical contact. “I apologize Kara, if I’d been thinking at all I would have gotten us reservations somewhere else.”

“No, it’s okay,” Kara says quickly, reaching up to adjust her glasses as she shoots Cat a nervous smile. “If this is one of your favorite restaurants, I want to get used to it. It might take a while, I feel very out of place, but it’s something you enjoy. That’s enough for me.”

Of course Kara would try to make her feel better, Cat thinks as she sits back to take a drink of her water. Cat had been the one to mess up, but Kara is the one reaching out and already working to make things better. Well, Cat is just going to have to keep up, or she’ll let Kara do that every time rather than shoulder any of the burden for herself. She knows it’s all too possible, she doesn’t like being wrong, and she likes admitting it even less. She likes things her way, and compromise is usually a dirty word. But Kara might just be worth it. And if she is, then Cat isn’t going to let herself sabotage a relationship before it even starts.

“You’ll have to tell me some of what you enjoy, if we do this again,” Cat says with a smile, glad when that seems to help relax Kara. At very least she no longer looks ready to tear the menu in half by clutching it too tightly.

The waitress returns to take their orders before Kara can respond, and when she leaves again Cat quickly studies her date for the evening. She’s still not sure how to bring up the timer on her arm, whether to push for answers now or wait to see how the evening goes before bringing it up. She’s never been good at delayed gratification, but she doesn’t want to push Kara away. Even after the little amount of time they’ve spent together, there’s something between them, something more than just a soul bond telling them they should be together.

If that was all, Cat could shrug it off, go after answers like the investigative journalist she’d once been. She knows how to dig for a secret, she’d been the one to do all her own research for her show. She might not be the greatest investigator out there, but she knows the techniques and knows them well. If this was just another story, she could do the same thing here. Dig for answers, get what she needed, then leave. Simple as that.

But when there’s more to it? She can’t bring herself to tackle things that way. Kara deserves better, Cat can already feel that much. Kara was someone good, probably too good for Cat, and she needed to recognize that fact. She needed to respect it.

So rather than push Cat settles for casual conversation, learning more about Kara as she gradually opens up about herself as well. Before long their conversation flows without awkwardness, and Cat thinks it might just be one of the most enjoyable nights out that she’s ever spent with another person.

The evening ends without Cat asking about the numbers on her arm, because she just can’t bring herself to ruin the conversation with what could so easily turn into an accusation. She’d enjoyed herself, enjoyed Kara’s company, and the next time they go out Cat wants to make sure they both agree it’s a date. She still wants to be cautious, still wants to take things slow, but she already knows that when she falls for Kara she’s going to fall  _ hard. _

She ends up hiding the numbers on her arm for seven months before Kara catches a glimpse. Over those seven months they’ve taken things at a nearly glacial pace when it comes to everything but emotional intimacy, and it seems to be the way both women prefer it. They know almost everything about each other’s lives at this point, even if Kara doesn’t want to discuss her childhood. That’s something Cat can respect and understand, and she’s never pushed.

But their everyday lives have become closely entwined, and Cat wants to start moving the rest of their relationship forward, as much as Kara is comfortable with. A few kisses and make out sessions are all well and good, but she can’t help wanting more the longer they put it off.

The only thing holding her back is the timer still on her arm, the one Cat has kept so carefully hidden from Kara’s view. She hasn’t come up with a way to ask Kara that doesn’t sound like she’s looking for a story, or accusing her of something. So every time an opportunity comes up she backs down, hating herself for the cowardice every time.

But that has to end, she can’t keep putting it off. One way or another she has to ask, has to figure out what’s going on. They can’t have a real, deep relationship without taking this step, both being completely honest with each other. And after seven months, Cat knows she wants that kind of relationship.

So she invites Kara over one night when Carter is away at another science camp, wanting to have the house to themselves for this conversation. Kara adores Carter, and he adores her, but Cat knows this conversation might be a little more personal than her twelve year old son should be privy to.

“Kara, I have a question,” Cat says as she clears the table, heart rate speeding up as she tries to sound casual, already afraid of what the evening might bring.

“Ask away,” Kara says as she takes the plates from Cat’s hands and deposits them in the sink, turning back to face Cat with a small frown. “You know I’ll tell you anything.”

Cat takes a deep breath to ask but finds the words won’t come, so instead she slowly pushes up the sleeve of her sweater to reveal her timer. She’s been so careful to keep it hidden from everyone these past few months, and revealing it now makes her feel somehow more naked than she would feel if she were actually removing her clothes. The level of intimacy and the level of risk in this simple action are far greater than just falling into bed with someone, even someone like Kara.

“I didn’t realize it would be that high,” Kara says, slowly moving closer as if giving Cat time to pull away. When she doesn’t, Kara reaches out a careful hand to trace over the numbers on Cat’s skin, looking up at her with a lost look. “I hoped it wouldn’t be that high.”

“Why is it this high?” Cat asks, reaching her other hand up to hold Kara’s fingers to her mark. “This is, this is a long time, Kara. How is it possible?”

“I told you I lost my parents,” Kara says, waiting for Cat’s slow nod. “I didn’t tell you I lost so much more. I lost my entire world, Cat. An entire planet of people, gone in an instant. And when I got here, when I found my cousin and his new family took me in, all I heard was how I needed to hide. So I did, even from you.”

There’s an apology in her voice, and if not for the emotional nature of the conversation Cat would want to laugh. Of course Kara is apologizing for that right now, for taking entirely sensible precautions with her entire identity. She’s clearly afraid that Cat will be angry, as if Cat hadn’t hidden her half of the secret from Kara for months as well.

“Will you tell me about your home? About what it was like coming here?” Cat asks, offering her forgiveness the best way she knows how. Kara doesn’t need to hear it, she needs to  _ see  _ it. She needs Cat to show her that it’s understood and forgiven, that she isn’t being pushed away. Their time together has taught Cat that much.

Kara nods, a tear or two escaping to track down her face as she pulls Cat in for a hug. Both women cling to the other for long moments as they let themselves feel that this is real, that the greatest secrets still between them are secrets no more. And that in the face of the truth, neither has gone running.

“My mother told me I would have great powers here,” Kara begins when they’ve settled against each other on the couch, Cat willingly curling into Kara’s side as she listens to the story. She feels safe there, as if the world can’t touch her, not when she’s in Kara’s arms. “I don’t use them much, I’m too used to hiding them. But I have them. Apparently not aging is one of them, though I’d hoped it wasn’t.”

“Why?” Cat asks, needing to hear Kara’s exact reasons before they can move on to the second part of the conversation that she can already see coming.

Kara swallows hard before answering, clearly trying to frame her answer in a way Cat can understand. And Cat lets her, not pushing at all. This is Kara’s fear, not Cat’s. When she’s ready to speak she will, and Cat will be patient until then.

“I’ve lost everyone once before,” Kara eventually says, voice scarcely louder than a whisper. “I don’t know how to survive losing everyone again. I noticed I wasn’t really seeming to age after I hit about 23, but I hoped it was just that I didn’t notice, or that it would take a while before I started to age. I didn’t want it to be anything else.”

“Oh, my darling,” Cat says when Kara finishes, leaning up to press a gentle kiss to her lips. “I’m so sorry.”

“I can’t lose everyone again,” Kara says, tears beginning to slide down her cheeks without her making any move to brush them off. Cat does it for her, reaching up to carefully wipe them away before shifting their positions so that Kara can cry into her shoulder in an emotional release that’s been too long in coming.

It lasts long enough that Cat begins to grow worried, not sure what Kara’s abilities are or whether this is edging into something unhealthy. Any human would likely be growing dehydrated by now, but does the same apply to Kara?

The tears finally slow just before Cat can start to panic, and before much longer Kara is pulling back with an apology already on her lips. 

“Hush, no need to apologize for that,” Cat says before she can put it into words. “You’re allowed to feel, Kara. I won’t ever stop you.”

“Cat,” Kara says before stopping, and Cat knows what’s coming next. “Cat, soulmates can share their time with each other,” she continues, looking up at Cat with a hesitant glance before burying her face in her shoulder once more.

“They can,” Cat agrees, wishing she’d had more time to work through this herself. Her first instinct is to say  _ ‘hell no’ _ and leave it at that, but she knows that’s the wrong reaction. Even if she can’t bring herself to take what Kara is offering, she can’t be that blunt about it. “I don’t, Kara, I don’t know yet how I feel about living that long.”

“I understand,” Kara says, eyes going dark as she looks away. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have brought it up. I can’t ask that of you.”

“You can ask anything of me, darling,” Cat says instantly, turning Kara’s face back towards her. “I understand that this isn’t fair to you, I do. All I’m asking is that you let me think about it before I give you an answer.”

Part of Cat hates that she can’t immediately offer to share this burden with Kara. Her soulmate, the woman she loves, is facing what might as well be an eternity of watching the people she cares about slip away from her. And with a possibility that Cat won’t share it with her, she could face it alone. It isn’t fair to Kara, but Cat is only human. Something like this is completely beyond what she could have expected, and it will take her time. She doesn’t even know if she’ll continue to age physically even if Kara shares her time.

“Of course, Cat. Of course. I’m sorry,” Kara says, still falling over herself to apologize until Cat hushes her with a single finger to her lips.

“You apologize too much,” she says with a small smile. “Now, if you can keep from telling me how sorry you are every five seconds, let’s talk about this.”

So they do, they cover every option and possibility they can think of over the next few hours. Whether Cat will age, what to do if she didn’t and people began to notice, every potential outcome and obstacle that could possibly arise if they share that much time between them. By the time they can’t come up with anything else, Cat still hasn’t come to a decision, but she’ll at least feel a lot more comfortable with it when she does.

And Kara at least knows that Cat is honestly considering it, that she genuinely wants Kara to be as happy as possible. It’s a hard situation with no easy answers, but at least they’re in it together.

***

When Kara comes out as Supergirl later that year to save Cat’s plane, the decision becomes a lot easier to make. Watching Kara’s panic at the thought of losing Cat so soon, there’s no way for Cat to do anything but promise to spend every second she possibly can at Kara’s side. It won’t be easy for either of them, but they’ve come this far together and Cat knows they can go even further. As long as she doesn’t continue to age at a normal rate, Cat will stay by Kara’s side until the very end.

Six years pass and Cat doesn’t seem to age, something that gradually brings home just how real this decision is. She’ll watch Carter grow older and pass away, and then any grandchildren she might have, and great-grandchildren after them. She’ll lose everyone time and time again, watch the world change before her eyes as the years stretch on. And she’ll do it with only Kara at her side.

But strangely enough, the thought grows easier as the time passes. She finds a peace in the decision that she hadn’t expected. It will hurt, of course. Cat knows she can’t even begin to imagine the pain that will come her way over the centuries. But she can’t leave Kara to face it on her own, and that thought gives her strength. They have an opportunity here, a chance to see and shape a future that’s out of reach for everyone else, and a chance to share more years than anyone could dream loving one another.

Ten years after Kara first puts on her cape, National City faces their greatest threat yet. An alien with just as much strength as Kara and a brutality she could never imagine sets his sights on the city, and of course its hero answers the challenge.

Cat watches helplessly from a safe distance as Kara takes hit after hit, willing her lover to make it through this safely. She’s always come through before, this can’t be any different, Cat won’t allow it to be. She’ll fight the universe itself if it means keeping Kara safe.

Cat wants to cheer as she sees Kara land a solid blow to the alien’s chest, knocking him to the ground and forming a small crater around his limp form. Kara had done it.

She should have known it was too soon to celebrate.

It looks like slow motion as Cat watches on in horror, the way Kara stumbles as she lands, powers either gone or nearly gone. And that’s when the alien makes his last move, sending a shard of some other-worldly metal spinning her way with enough force to knock the superhero to the ground.

The news feeds cut out shortly after that, but Cat is already on her way to the scene, knowing she has to get to Kara’s side  _ now.  _ The timer on her arm is ticking down at an alarming rate, and Cat knows what that means. Kara is hurt too badly to be saved, too badly to wait for her powers to come back and heal her before it’s too late. And Cat knows what she needs to do now.

She calls Carter on her way, knows that he’ll have been watching the same battle, that he’ll know why she’s calling. And he does, though his tears nearly break her resolve. Her precious little boy isn’t so little any more, but she’s still his mother.

She has to see Kara one more time though, and she can feel in her bones that in order to do so she’ll have to give Kara back not only every year the Kryptonian had shared with her, but also the remainder of the time she would have had on her own. Anything less won’t be enough to keep Kara alive long enough to get there.

The driver takes her right to Kara’s side, the government agents on the scene recognizing that it’s Cat and letting her through without making her wait. They all understand the situation, and Cat can see the sorrow on their faces as they watch her stumble from the car and drop to the ground at Kara’s side.

“Cat- no,” Kara coughs when she sees her, understanding what’s happening without either needing to say a word. “Carter-”

“Carter is strong, he’ll be okay,” Cat says as she watches her timer continue to inch down. She’s got about ten years left now, just long enough to say what needs to be said. “I called him on my way here, he understands. He’s strong, Kara. Stronger than I am.”

This way hurts, she can feel her strength ebbing with every breath, pouring through her into Kara and then out through the wound in Kara’s side. But she won’t have to watch Carter age without her, she won’t have to watch him die. He’s an adult now, a grown man, and he doesn’t need her anymore. He’ll miss her, but he can stand on his own, Cat knows he can.

“You could have stayed,” Kara says, reaching her hand up as far as she has strength, and Cat guides it the rest of the way to hold against her cheek. “You could have stayed with him.”

“I promised you once, Kara, I won’t leave you,” Cat says, leaning down to press her forehead against Kara’s as her strength begins to fade. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” Kara gasps out, eyes falling shut.

And Cat watches her timer hit zero before her eyes do the same.

She’d been right, they’d face the end together.

**Author's Note:**

> I'd like to blame this on someone else but I really can't do that. I had a few people help me plot this out and tell me to go for it, but ultimately all blame rests on my shoulders alone. (Also I'm curious to see how may of you yell at me, so don't hold back in the comments.)


End file.
